The research, published in the journal Diabetologica, found a range of behaviours: some of the people in the study spent as little as three hours a day sitting, but most spent more than 10 hours in a chair, and a few regularly sat down for 16 hours a day. The conclusion was that people at risk of diabetes could be well advised to spend less time sitting and more time standing up, said Joseph Henson, a diabetes researcher at Leicester University.

"The longer the time you spend sitting, the higher the amount of sugars and fats that accumulate in your bloodstream regardless of the time you spend exercising," Dr Henson said.

"There's a significant difference between people who sit a lot and those who don't. Those who spend the least time sitting have the lowest values of glucose and fats in their blood."

Scientists have found that a person's metabolic rate crashes to a minimum when sitting and that standing up for an extra three hours a day, even without exercising, would on average burn off about 3.6kg of fat a year.

Cardiac arrhythmias have been implicated in the deaths of 17 morbidly obese individuals subsisting on a collagen hydrolysate preparation ("liquid protein") during a modified fasting regimen for weight loss. Serious cardiac arrhythmias have been noted in three of six subjects studied prospectively within 28 days of starting a similar regimen, which used an inadequate protein source and was nearly devoid of all essential minerals. A comparative study of three 28-day weight loss diets of varying carbohydrate, protein, and energy content (450 to 820 kcal/day) but employing protein of good quality and adequate in micronutrients did not disclose substantial diet-related arrhythmias in five subjects on each of the three diets. The incidence of arrhythmia seen with liquid protein diets is not likely to be related to the absolute energy or carbohydrate content of the modified fasting regimen itself.

Good to know. Phinney's recent book on low carb diets and his book on low carb performance are excellent. Having finished a recent fast (lost 77lbs in 19 days- lots of water weight, which is good). I've been reading quite a bit about PSMF protein sparing modified fasts. The idea is to cut carbs and fat (except your own body fat which you burn), and consume enough lean protein to fight muscle tissue loss. I've seen different estimates of how much lean tissue is lost during fasting.

To determine the effects of very-low-calorie diets on the metabolic abnormalities of diabetes and obesity, we have studied 10 obese, non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDDM) and 5 obese, nondiabetic subjects for 36 days on a metabolic ward during consumption of a liquid diet of 300 kcal/day with 30 g of protein.

[...]

The composition of the weight lost at completion was similar in both groups and ranged from 21.6% to 31.3% water, 3.9% to 7.8% protein, and 60.9% to 74.5% fat.

[...]

This study demonstrates that short-term treatment with a very-low-calorie diet in both obese diabetic and nondiabetic subjects results in: safe and effective weight loss associated with the normalization of elevated glucose and lipid levels, a large individual variability in total nitrogen loss determined principally by the initial lean body mass, and progressive increments in the contribution of fat to weight loss with stable caloric requirements and no evidence of a hypometabolic response.